Great, sometimes
Jared Goff is one of the NFL’s up-and-coming star QBs ... but he’s not there quite yet
Look, there’s no question Jared Goff is one of the top young passers in the NFL. Maybe the best after Patrick Mahomes.
As the Los Angeles Rams’ No. 1 overall draft pick in 2016, Goff has blossomed big-time since the arrival of offensive-whiz head coach Sean McVay.
But some want to anoint Goff as one of the game’s superstar QBs already. While he’s close, and in some games sure as heck looks the part, he’s not there yet.
The 24-year-old’s youth and inexperience continue to show more than maybe casual NFL fans realize, and more than he’d surely like to be the case, in spite of the fact Goff has led the Rams to a 25-7 record over the past two seasons, including back-to-back NFC West titles.
On Sunday afternoon, the Rams take on the Saints in
New Orleans in the NFC championship, with a berth in Super Bowl LIII on the line.
It’s consistency that Goff lacks most, as his third NFL season approaches its end. On top of that, he needs improvement in a slew of areas, no doubt many of the same things that nearly all quarterbacks of his age and experience seek.
For instance, the analytics website FootballDB.com has Goff tied for first in the NFL with the most fumbles, 12. He lost the third most, five. He has lots of company in that only quarterbacks fumbled more than seven times on the season — 16 to be precise.
And guess who finished
2018 far below that eight-fumble threshold? Grizzled old ball protectors Tom Brady of New England (four fumbles, two lost) and the Saints’ Drew Brees (five fumbles, one lost). Coincidence? Of course not. In 19 and 18 years of playing in the league, respectively, those two fortysomethings have learned how to take care of the football in the pocket, or when scrambling.
It is learned behaviour.
Add that and a dozen or two other improved ‘little things’ to the repertoire of a hot-shot youngster such as Goff, and you some day may get a quarterback reliably elite as Brady or Brees.
Until then, there will be growing pains — on the field.
Off the field, Goff is about as advanced as he could be for his age, as his teammates and coaches have been saying for two-plus years now. Indeed, quarterbacking is not all about stats.
Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks has had the fortune of catching passes in his young career from Brees (2014-16), Brady (2017) and, after being traded in April by the Patriots to the Rams, Goff.
Cooks has watched that trio prepare off the field, and lead on it, in all manners of stressful conditions. While he would not compare Goff to Brees this week, he did rave about the youngster’s maturity as a leader.
“You talk about a guy who stays even keel. He operates with such a quieted mind, no matter what’s going on,” Cooks said. “And when you have that from your quarterback, that’s special. You love to see that in, I guess, a quote unquote ‘younger guy,’ but he doesn’t play like a younger guy, that’s for sure.”
In terms of pure passing production, Goff was more prolific in 2018 than 2017, his only two seasons as a full-time starter. His completion percentage rose from 62.1 to 64.9, the exact NFL average in 2018 (a record, too).
He ranked above 10th in only three bellwether stats, actually, but three good ones: yards (4,688, fourth), touchdowns (32, sixth) and yardsper-attempt (8.36, fourth).
On the other hand, Goff ’s interception total shot up from seven to 12, and he took eight more sacks (25 to 33). All told, his pass-efficiency rating increased slightly in 2018 from 100.5 to 101.1.
Whereas Goff finished his first season under McVay’s coaching on a strong roll — completing fewer than 60% of his passes in only one of the Rams’ final eight games of 2017, before L.A. was upset at home by Atlanta in the wildcard round — he wobbled quite noticeably early last month. In a shaky road win at Detroit followed by decisive back-to-back losses (at Chicago, vs. Philadelphia), Goff completed just 55% of his throws for one touchdown and five interceptions.
The last time Goff had a strong passing game was on that memorable Monday night, Nov. 19 — the 54-51 shootout victory over Mahomes and the Chiefs. Goff completed 31 of 49 (63%) for 413 yards, four touchdowns and no picks. Amazing.
That Goff can perform so impressively and prolifically in a game when both teams’ pedals throughout are slammed hard against the metal, speaks to Goff ’s amazing talents, to his potential and to his grace under fire.
That he not only hasn’t come close to repeating that performance in six games since then, but has completed well under 60% of his throws for as many interceptions as TDs (six) speaks to his youth and inconsistency.
So, which Goff are we going to see on Sunday?